Join with me to support the Software Freedom Conservancy

This is a key moment to stand up for yourselves, to give back for work that's already been done, and to ensure the continued growth of free software as a means to ensure our freedom, and the freedom of future generations. Fortunately, since we have the strength of numbers to draw on, you can do your part for both organizations for less than the monthly cost of a couple Netflix subscriptions or a single dinner
out.

Bradley Kuhn, Conservancy's President, hired me to work at the Free
Software Foundation in March of 2003, when he was the FSF's executive
director. Bradley had just, at the end of 2002, led the effort to
design and launch our associate membership program. He did this
to get the FSF, which was faltering, back on stable financial footing.
Thirteen years later, you can see the success of his efforts. The FSF
has not only remained solid -- we've even grown. By donating to
Conservancy now, you can help them reach the same level of
stability.

Every day, I am thankful for the work Bradley did in 2002 and the
result that the FSF is almost 85% funded by individuals. While we
receive and welcome support from corporations as well, the fact that
we do so from a position of grassroots strength and independence helps
us stick resolutely to our principles and the clear-eyed pursuit of
our charitable mission to make all software respect the freedom of the
people using it.

The best way in our current legal regime to make this dream a reality
is to distribute software under the terms of a copyleft license like
the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GNU GPL guarantees that
software initially distributed under its terms will always be free for
anyone to run, share, modify, and re-share. Software bearing its
shield can never be incorporated into proprietary, restricted products
like those distributed by Microsoft, Apple, Google, and -- sadly --
many others.

This protection, though, is not automatic. The terms of the GPL need
to be actively enforced whenever companies attempt to take works
written and distributed by developers committed to respecting users,
and instead use those works as the basis for restriction and control.
Such companies are doing something unethical. They are taking software
deliberately committed to the commons for everyone to build on in
their own endeavors, whether commercial or noncommercial, and instead
using that work to try and get a cheater's advantage over their
business competitors.

The GPL is more than capable of stopping this cheating. But someone
has to detect it, and someone has to take action to stop it. We
describe this work as "GPL enforcement" or "GPL compliance." The
software copyright holders or their designated representative are the
ones who have the legal standing to tell the cheaters that they have
to stop cheating, and to take them to court if they refuse. The FSF,
standing up for the developers of GNU software, and as a proxy for
users everywhere, does this work daily. So does Conservancy, on behalf
of its member projects and other developers they have specific
agreements with. These projects include a few you might have heard of,
like Git, Samba, Mercurial, and the GPL Compliance Project for Linux
Developers.

Even though we have decades of evidence that following the terms of
the GPL can lead to enormous business success, some bad actors still
cheat and take shortcuts. They build their products using the ladder
handed to them by free software developers, and then try to kick it
away so no one else can do the same.

Organizations like the FSF and Conservancy, working with like-minded
free software developers, take on the often David vs. Goliath work of
investigating and stopping such cheating. Because this work involves
using the power of problematic legal systems, we both follow a set of
principles designed to make sure we do it for only the right
reasons and never for mere financial gain.

Fortunately, the problem of deliberate cheating is less common than
companies who distribute both GPL and non-GPL software unintentionally
screwing up. Even though GPL-licensed software is now the backbone of
our international economy, distributing it is still new to many
companies. Conservancy and the FSF help such companies find and
correct their mistakes and start to do things the right way. We do ask
to be reimbursed for our time on such work, but at very modest rates
that by themselves never seem sufficient to expand it -- largely
because both organizations also devote much of our time to helping
free software developers use licenses properly, at no charge.

While, as the FSF's executive director, I am primarily concerned about
growing our own work in this area, it is also abundantly clear that we
need more than one organization doing it. If we don't, all the amazing
work done over the last two-and-a-half decades developing and sharing
software under the GPL will end up having been in service of making
cheaper and easier ways to restrict and control people, instead of
building the digital foundation for a truly free society. As
Conservancy's executive director and unflappable advocate of user
freedom Karen Sandler said in her 2015 LibrePlanet keynote,
someone needs to "stand up for the GPL."

The GPL works. It has been tested in courts. It has established and
maintained strong norms outside of court. But like the Millennium
Falcon's deflector shields, if you don't keep it charged and angled at
the threats, you'll be vulnerable.

Unfortunately, some companies see the very success of free software as
evidence that we should stop doing GPL enforcement and stop worrying
about whether they are actually passing along the freedoms the GPL
gave them. This is short-term thinking on their part, undermining the
very principles and dynamics that made their businesses possible.

They are testing the waters to see how much you, as an individual,
care about having your freedom respected. There are many ways each of
us can stand up for our own freedom, but in practice, as each of us
have day jobs, families, and complex lives, the best option we have is
to join our resources with others', and support groups whose day job
is to work on our behalf.

To that end, Bradley Kuhn and Karen Sandler are two of the hardest
working people I know. For them, it's much more than a day job.
Together with their General Counsel Tony Sebro, their License
Compliance Engineer Denver Gingerich, and their all-star board of
directors, they get an astounding amount of work done, for
astoundingly modest compensation. They do it for all the right
reasons, and are incorruptible. As someone who has worked closely with
13 years' of FSF staffers and board members, and hundreds of free
software developers and activists, my expectations in this area are
very high. These are exactly the kind of people you want working on
your behalf.

What they get done -- behind the scenes doing critical administrative
work so developers can focus on development; out on the
international speaking circuit inspiring people and
focusing attention on key issues facing our movement; and on the
phone successfully navigating delicate, difficult negotiations -- is a
constant inspiration to me and should make you, as a Supporter, feel
very good about how your donations are used.

This is a key moment to stand up for yourselves, to give back for work
that's already been done, and to ensure the continued growth of free
software as a means to ensure our freedom, and the freedom of future
generations. Fortunately, since we have the strength of numbers to
draw on, you can do your part for both organizations for less than the
monthly cost of a couple Netflix subscriptions or a single dinner out.
And if you do it now for Conservancy, your donation will be
matched.

The alternative -- of being surrounded by computers of all shapes and
sizes controlled by others for the purpose of influencing, monitoring,
and restricting every aspect of our lives, will be far more costly.